Regional News

(Antigua Sun) – Another Antigua and Barbuda flagged vessel was hijacked last Friday.

(Barbados Nation)  – A local mortgage company seems set to take over the operations of CLICO Mortgage Finance Company.

(Jamaica Gleaner) A prominent Jamaica-born international pastor was taken into custody at the Savanna-la-Mar Police Station in Westmoreland on Monday and was awaiting charges of carnal abuse and indecent assault.

(Trinidad Express) Before its owner was able to open its doors for business, the newly-established Play Multi-Denom casino was completely destroyed by fire in Port of Spain early Monday morning.

(Antigua Sun) – A young Guyanese mother of twin girls was ordered deported from Antigua last Friday after she pleaded guilty to remaining in the country after the expiration of a permit.

(BBC) –  A Cuban exile blogger from Miami says he used a female internet alter ego to gain access to a member of the usually impervious family of Fidel Castro.

(Barbados Nation) Opposition Leader Mia Mottley has warned Government that its new immigration policy is already beginning to give Barbados a bad reputation in the region and could possibly affect the economy.

(Jamaica Gleaner) Trinidad and Barbados head the list of Caribbean Community (CARICOM) member states that Minister of Industry, Investment and Commerce Karl Samuda has told to watch their step.

(Trinidad Guardian) Depositors with millions of dollars in Clico are encountering major problems to recover their funds, despite assurances by the Government to honour their claims, as well as those of policy-holders.

(Jamaica Gleaner) Prime Minister Bruce Golding has described the Venezuelan-sponsored PetroCaribe Agreement as a model of cooperation within the region and among developing countries.

(Trinidad Express) – Between Wednesday night and Thursday afternoon, the lives of four men were brought to a violent and bloody end, sending the year’s murder toll to 247.

  BASSETERRE, St Kitts (Reuters) – Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez vowed yesterday to strengthen the PetroCaribe regional energy alliance that his nation funds, despite the drop in world oil prices over the last year.

(Trinidad Guardian) – As she was jogging along a nature trail, a woman was suddenly set upon by two men with a shotgun who yanked at her hair and cuffed her about the face and body.

(Jamaica Observer) – In the wake of non-tariff barriers recently imposed on the export of Jamaican patties to Trinidad, Prime Minister Bruce Golding has commented that problems were also being encountered between Caribbean states in the movement of people.

(Trinidad Express) – Senior Counsel Desmond Allum leads a battery of 25 attorneys who have requested a Special General Meeting of the Law Association to “consider, discuss, move and pass” a no-confidence motion in John Jeremie as Attorney General and as titular head of the Bar of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago.

(Trinidad Express) – Preliminary tests conducted on two of three women in Tobago who were screened for the Influenza A/H1N1 Virus, otherwise known as swine flu, have returned positive.

CARACAS (Reuters) – Venezuela is set to nationalize the companies that run some of the Caribbean nation’s main ports, the latest move by the socialist President Hugo Chavez to put key areas of the economy in state hands.

CARACAS (Reuters) – The Venezuelan government of US-critic President Hugo Chavez on Wednesday ordered Coca-Cola Co to withdraw its Coke Zero beverage from the South American nation, citing unspecified dangers to health.

(Antigua Sun) – Shondell Glasgow’s face is battered and bruised almost beyond recognition and she could barely speak more than 24 hours after an ordeal which she said she hopes no other woman in Antigua and Barbuda would have to endure.

BASSETERRE, St Kitts (Reuters) – Leaders of PetroCaribe, the energy alliance that groups regional oil powerhouse Venezuela with 17 Caribbean and Central American states, are meeting this week to plan a strategy to confront the global economic downturn.